Microbial Diversity and Influencing Factors in a Small Watershed in Winter

Abstract

The water quality of a small watershed will directly affect the water quality safety of the entire watershed. The Lidu small watershed of the Fulin District in Chongqing was selected for this study. The characteristics of runoff and the microbial community in the receiving water body were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing technology. The effects of the physical and chemical factors of the water body on the microbial diversity in the water body were also investigated. The results showed that the small watershed of Lidu was an important source of nitrite and dissolved organic carbon for the receiving water. There was no significant difference in the microbial richness and diversity of the water flowing through different pollution sources in the small watershed, and the microbial diversity index was negatively correlated with the total phosphorus (r -0.79--0.84, P ≤ 0.01) and phosphate (r -0.71--0.80, P ≤ 0.01) of the water. At the phylum level, Actinobacteria (37.33% ±14.69%) accounted for the largest proportion of runoff flowing through the agricultural area, followed by Proteobacteria (32.53% ±7.18%), Cyanobacteria (14.65% ±22.64%), Bacteroidetes (8.50% ±3.67%), and others. Proteobacteria (43.67% ±10.80%) accounted for the largest proportion of runoff flowing through the industrial area, followed by Bacteroidetes (25.33% ±11.97%), Actinobacteria (24.17% ±14.66%), Firmicutes (2.53% ±0.72%), and others. At the genus level, hgcI_clade (19.08% ±13.46%) accounted for the largest proportion of runoff flowing through the agricultural area, followed by CL 500-29 _marine_group (7.40% ±4.44%), Limnohabitans (7.05% ±3.14%), and others. Flavobacterium (20.40% ±12.37%) accounted for the largest proportion of runoff flowing through the industrial area, followed by hgcI_clade (15.30% ±11.11%), Acinetobacter (9.33% ±11.50%), and others. The Flavobacterium in the runoff water may be related to the input of industrial sources in the watershed. Nitrous nitrogen, total phosphorus, phosphate, pH, and Zn2+ were the main environmental factors that affected the microbial community in the small watershed. They can explain the variance of microbial community 0.26, 0.21, 0.20, 0.15, and 0.14, respectively. DOC, nitrate nitrogen, and heavy metal ions such as Cu2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, and As3+ were also related to the proportion of some microorganisms in the water.